He could’ve taken the more accepted route for Jews that would have taken Him around Samaria along the Jordan River to Galilee, but instead, He decided to take a direct route through enemy territory. It was noon when He arrived. He sat down to rest.
A lone woman approached the well to draw water. Groups of women came to the well in the cool of the day – never at noon and especially not alone. But, this woman had been ostracized by the other women of Sychar. After all, she had been married and divorced five times and was currently living with a man. O, how the women must’ve gossiped about her! No wonder she came to the well alone and at noon. She was startled to see a man sitting at the well.
“Give Me a drink,” He said. His voice was gentle – not demanding.
The woman replied, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask a drink from a Samaritan woman?” She had a complicated and long-ago ancestry of Jews intermarrying with other captives. The woman was not a ‘pure’ Jew nor was she a ‘pure ‘ woman. She felt hopeless. “You have nothing to draw with,” she said.
“If you knew who was asking for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water,” He said. “Whoever drinks from this well will thirst again, but the water I give will become a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life.”
Hope began to rise within her. Water to quench parched throats never to thirst again? “Sir, give me this water,” she said. She studied the kind man sitting at the well. “Are you a prophet or the Messiah?” she asked.
He answered, ” I who speak to you am He.”
Her heart soared as she gazed at the long-expected Messiah who was to come to set man free from sin. She, a sinner, was made clean! She could not contain her joy as she ran to tell others that the Messiah had come. John 4:5-26
Jesus offers each one of us – regardless of our past – the opportunity to be made clean if we receive Him; to respond to His invitation to “Come.” There is hope is in Jesus!